The news that Studio Ghibli is taking a “pause” sent shockwaves across the internet earlier this year. That was mostly due to the fact that western journalists translated hiatus incorrectly and therefore told the world Ghibli was closing for good. The last week of this Ghibli fest is a timely chance to reflect on its output so far, with Spirited Away, The Cat Returns, Howl’s Moving Castle and Porco Rosso all getting an airing.

It isn’t hard to admire the Cambridge film festival. One of the least demonstrative festivals around, it has gone about its business for 33 years now with the emphasis on quality rather than razzle-dazzle. The 34th incarnation is no exception. It opens with The Kidnapping Of Michel Houellebecq, thriller director Guillaume Nicloux’s film which takes a fanciful look at the temporary disappearance of the controversial French novelist during a book tour. Also occupying the “sort-of documentary” genre is 20,000 Days On Earth, a partly scripted portrait of Nick Cave with input from Ray Winstone and Kylie Minogue. Woody Allen’s feather-light, French Riviera-set comedy Magic In The Moonlight, with Colin Firth, Eileen Atkins and Emma Stone, also gets a look-in.

The BFI’s three-month science-fiction season begins in earnest in October. Over 1,000 screenings will take place at hundreds of venues across the UK, from re-releases of 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner to the more obscure, including an Afrofuturism strand and assorted sci-fi-themed music events. A curtain-raiser to the season arrives this week in the form of three outdoor screenings of UK sci-fi gems at the British Museum: 1961’s The Day The Earth Caught Fire, the Bowie-starring The Man Who Fell To Earth, and 1980’s Flash Gordon, which hasn’t dated in the slightest. All the camp costumes and cornball dialogue must have insulated it against the ravages of time.

This film festival will explore different elements of conflict through screenings and discussions over three evenings. Documentary Miles & War looks at the private mediators in international conflicts, and one of those, David Gorman, will be in a post-film Q&A session with the film’s director, Anne Thoma. First To Fall is a coming-of-age story about two young Libyans who return home to join the revolution, while Evaporating Borders and For Those Who Can Tell No Tales examine the idea of collateral damage through, respectively, immigration policy and the Bosnian civil war.